We worked with Kathy on a two-phase renovation on our North Berkeley home. Kathy and co were…read moreresponsive, professional, and did a good job balancing our uneducated ideas with their experience to get a cohesive plan that aligned with our vision. We've now completed construction for phase one and planning for both and we're so glad we chose to work with Kathy and Sogno!

We love Sogno and recommend them without hesitation. We worked with Kathy Rogers and her mix of…read morepractical (Ikea cabinets) and more expensive finishes helped create our amazing kitchen that two years later we love and use. We entertain so much more and now if we don't it's because we have two children instead of just one, and not because we're embarrassed by our kitchen. We used their services to update and open up our kitchen which was walled off, horribly outdated and inefficient. Now we can move from kitchen to living space super easily and everyone can participate in conversation, drink at the counter, or help cook. We get lots of compliments and can't ever imagine leaving.

Stay away from them at all cost…read more After just two months, our house has leakage problems. The fixtures were falling off. The walls are damages. Oh, did I mention that the second half of the project was just sitting there untouched for over a month now despite all our efforts to continue this project?

KLC stepped in on a residential project (garage and utility room+bathroom) and did an excellent job…read moreon the drawings. They also did an amazing job coordinating a very challenging permitting process with the city of El Cerrito. Ron, Maria, and Edwin genuinely cared about helping me through my first construction project, and I'm very satisfied with their service and quality of work.

Brief but excellent interaction with Paul. He evaluated our house for an earthquake retrofit, and…read morebased on past work & plans, he determined that we already had everything we need at this time. No pressure to do work we didn't need, he helped us save a bunch of money. Thanks Paul!

Paul Ladner Design & Construction rebuilt a porch arbor for us. Paul and his crew did a beautiful…read morejob. Everything was straight forward from when Paul first came and told me what was needed. His estimate was very accurate and he explained in great detail via email's how he would do the work and what may occur once the original arbor was dismantled. Paul and crew did an excellent job cleaning up the job site. Zero stray nails in the driveway. I look forward to working again with Paul on future projects and will highly recommend Paul Ladner to friends looking to renovate or needing repair work.

We could not be happier with our home remodel, designed by our architect, Scott McGlashan. We…read morebought a mid-century modern home and it was incredibly important to us to maintain the integrity of the original design. Scott totally understood that and did an excellent job updating our home without losing the aesthetic that we fell in love with when we bought the home. Scott also brought us our contractor who was a amazing as well. The two of them worked so well together that it made the whole project run really smoothly. Scott is a smart, trustworthy, easy-going guy with a great heart and attitude. We are so glad to have worked with him.

Our company recently built a large addition designed by Scott McGlashan to a home here in the Bay…read moreArea. The project was a great success from conception to completion - due to Scott's design expertise and his professionalism. Speaking as a builder with over 30 years of experience, I've built a lot of projects that were bigger, more expensive, fancier etc. This one will stand in my memory because the finished house works in every way. It looks terrific from both outside and inside. The proportions of the addition complement the original home as do the details. It's not too big or too small, not too detailed or overly plain, in short, it's just right! Before we broke ground, Scott listened to the clients and designed a structure that gave them everything they asked for, and he kept costs within their budget. Then he won the neighbor's confidence and shepherded the plans through the complicated city approvals with only minor comments and alterations. During this process, he saved the clients $15,000 in construction costs by negotiating with the building officials. During the construction phase Scott collaborated with the clients and the builder, fostering a team approach. He brokered sensible compromises, but never lost sight of the original design goal. This steady, firm guidance reassured the clients, and helped us complete the project on schedule and within budget! I would conclude by saying that Scott is smart about energy efficiency. "Green Building" is the rage these days. Many claim to be "green", but few are. If you work with Scott and a good builder, the result will be an elegant structure you will love to live in. It will be energy efficient and it will have a timeless quality that you'll appreciate more every year you are there.

I have used Sarah Deeds and John McBride on several projects now. They were consultants on several…read morehome purchases I made and subsequently worked with me to remodel them. I find that in addition to having an excellent eye for design and detail they have a high degree of integrity. I completely trust them and will always choose to work with them first. There is nothing like having a contractor and architect that you can trust completely. My largest project with them was a remodel and basement apartment addition. Sarah was flexible and managed to get what I wanted and channel it into a really beautiful design. Most importantly she kept me from making a lot of stupid mistakes. Even though we are all "experts" on the spaces we live in, I will never again underestimate the value of involving a person that designs spaces everyday and understands the tradeoffs of different design decisions. John has an impeccable eye for detail and I believe is truly incapable of doing anything but good work. His ability to tightly sequence contractors was mind blowing and the level of quality he demanded of them was exceptional. It was also great to have someone doing the work that had a good relationship with my architect. I can't recommend Sarah enough! If you can get John to do the work, it will be well worth the wait.

We hired Sarah Deeds to create a long-term plan for gradually replacing our windows and deck,…read morefinishing our basement into a guest suite, and increasing the energy efficiency of our home through siding improvements. Sarah's method is very hands-on, so she visited us many times to learn how we use our current space, and to find out what we liked and didn't like about our home. What greatly impressed us about her is that environmentally-friendly solutions aren't an afterthought or a gimmick; they really form the ethos of her approach to architecture and design, and are clearly a passion for her. She had lots of innovative ideas and suggested using green materials that we didn't know about, while always keeping our budget in mind. We loved working with Sarah, and we'd recommend her to anyone who wants to take part in a creative, collaborative process to improve the design of their home or business (or build something from the ground up!).

If you want a quality project run by ultimate professionals, Levitch is the design/build company…read morefor your project. They designed and rebuilt our mid-60's home from the floor up. They made the process as comfortable as possible and worked with us every step of the way. When the city contractor reviewed and closed the permits, he said the work was the best he had seen in 30 years of performing inspections. We love Maurice, Vuk, Susan and the entire Levitch team. We definitely would use them again and recommend them to everyone who is looking for remodeling or rebuilding work to be performed.

I bought a house in Kensington in August 2020. Inspectors' documents reported that extensive repair…read moreand replacement of major systems of the house were needed. In September 2020, over a 90 minute Facetime, I consulted with Maurice Levitch, the president, architect, and general contractor as to how best address the issues. He walked through the house I had just purchased; I was in my home on the East Coast which is where I then lived. During that Facetime we agreed on the major contours of the project. During the next two months, his staff and I refined what would be done. Project scope, cost, and expectations were completely transparent at all times. The project took place from September 2020 to April 2021. While the project was going on, I was in Washington, D.C. I never once visited the Kensington house. Levitch and I did the entire project over email and telephone. At the end of almost all days, pictures and a short report were posted on their ProCore website showing me what had been done that day. I found the whole process enjoyable and interesting. I found Maurice to be a first-rate architect and general contractor with a deep knowledge of design, building systems, environmental impact, materials, and product. He will offer alternatives so that you can stay within your budget (I did find I spent more than I intended to but that was because I wanted to expand the scope of the project or pursue alternatives I hadn't contemplated). I found his subcontractors to be first-rate as well and Maurice makes sure that their work is organized, efficient, and of the highest quality. Among other things done: --All windows, interior doors, and exterior doors replaced. --New HVAC system. --Electrical system replaced, new interior panel, outlets brought to code. --Plumbing issues remedied, an entire subfloor of a bathroom rebuilt. Exact match for a rare marble tile found for a new floor. --Wood floor repair. --All manner of Kensington animals removed from crawlspace and attic. Moisture barriers, crawlspace and attic insulation replaced. --Walls sanded, made uniform throughout house with skim-coat plastering and then painting. Old baseboard removed, new chosen and installed. --Closets gutted, expanded, outfitted with custom rods, panels, and underlit shelves --A gas-leaking 36" range in the kitchen removed. Replaced with a 30" induction range, involving carpentry, electrical and plumbing work. --Carpentry work in kitchen, old maple cabinet wood was reused or matched perfectly. --Mudded in light fixtures for art lighting and wall washing installed. Total project cost was more than $325,000. A daughter with an Oakland worked with Levitch on two projects (2018 - 2022). First project: structural work to prevent house from sinking and an addition of 2 bedrooms, a playroom, and 1 bathroom. Second project: total kitchen renovation involving re-architecting of entire main floor. Excellent work, lovely people!

Big thank you to Ed Buchanan at BOA architects. Ed did an awesome job on the architectural aspects…read moreof our bathroom and bedroom remodel. All the detail work, (I specially loved the ceiling battens) really paid off with an end result we are thrilled with. Thanks again to Ed and staff.

We worked with Bethany and Buchanan Opalach on a comprehensive remodel of our North Oakland…read morecottage. We did a lift and remodel that transformed our house from a cozy 2-bed, 1-bath cottage into a lovely 4-bed, 2.5-bath family home. She listened to us about how we like to use our space indoors and out, and used it to create spacious rooms with a graceful flow. She suggested details to bring in warmth and charm, like built-ins, lighting schemes, and specific materials. She has a deep expertise in Bay Area architecture and design-- my favorite part of working with Bethany was when I would describe an idea or something I had seen somewhere else, and she would say, "oh, you want this thing," and her suggestion was always brilliant. She modified standard designs and components to suit our very tall family (taller countertops, taller cabinets, high ceilings, wide and tall doorways and hallways). Bethany was a dream. She was so attentive to our wants and needs, and we love our home.

We have been working on a 2nd floor addition to a 100 yr old house. As one can imagine, there are…read moremany significant structural issues that may arise unexpectedly when opening up walls and seeing how people build things 100 yrs ago. David and Ray have been incredible since the beginning of the process, helping us navigate through all the structural concerns and always trying to find a value engineering approach - whether it was optimizing depth of foundation work, or finding ways to reinforce old windows, coming up with ways to get headers into locations where there isn't the space, and/or proposing alternative shear wall options when there isn't room to fit things. Ray, our project engineer, has been the best communicating and responding to all our questions and worries. He carefully reviews the problem at hand that arise and often will provide 2 or 3 possible options that our builder can work on. With our current project, Ray is always super prompt to resolve any issues via call or email, or video conference and if necessary an onsite visit to inspect the construction phase. He was just crawling in our crawlspace the other day and notified our builder if some items that needed to be addressed to maintain a positive continuous connection from 2nd floor down to 1st floor and to crawlspace foundation. We are now adding the 2nd floor framing and almost done the most stressful part of the project. We have done 3 major remodels in the past with other firms where it was difficult to get in touch with anybody. With Ray and David at Simplengi Engineering, it has been a very refreshing experience to have experts that promptly responds to all our concerns. Value engineering, great timely communication, attention to detail, common sense, simple and smart engineering. We highly recommend Ray and David and Simplengi Engineering for any structural work. Simply great engineering. We don't plan to do another remodel for 100+ years but if we did, we would hire Simplengi 100% for sure.

​If you want the highest degree of professionalism​, the best customer service​, and an incredibly…read morewell trained and highly ethical engineer​, who is a supreme problem-solver and someone who actually responds to your questions, then you'll be 1000% satisfied with Dave Yadegar at Simplengi. ​D​ave is a superbly qualified engineer with a ​v​ast amount of varied professional experience​, and with his knowledge and skills​, ​h​e has saved us substantial amounts of time, money and perhaps most importantly - aggravation.​ ​I​nterestingly, I have met ​two other clients​ of Dave's, and they both shared the same opinion of​ his ability.​ ​D​ave will save you time, money, frustration, etc. New construction, remodels, expansion, - commercial and residential: he will simplify your life as ​he has done for me. He is absolutely the very best. PS- a shout-out goes to Antwon Trinh and Santosh Chitturi for helping round out the team!